Danny Hale reviews the ninth episode of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 4…
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back from its winter break and maybe it was that wait that had me so geared for its return but damn, this series just come back even better than before. “Broken Promises” felt like a natural follow-up to “Laws of Inferno Dynamics” instead of dropping the previous Ghost Rider storyline and clumsily adopting the new LMD plot. A big reason for this is the Darkhold; this is what this season has really been about. The book has been a constant throughout the weeks and has nicely tied in all our players.
One of the biggest reveals we were left revel in over the Christmas period was that May had been replaced by an android under Aida’s control. This resulted in me watching her throughout the episode, trying to understand what her mission or motivations might be. (This turned out to be an amazing red herring). The discovery that May was in fact a ‘sleeper agent’ was a genuinely nice surprise; it took the plot in a different direction than I was expecting and ensured that our team never managed to learn about the May-droid, extending the storyline. All of this fell into place by the end of the episode once the real puppeteer was revealed.
This week gave us our first proper introduction to Vijay, Senator Nadeer’s Inhuman brother. This plot was surprisingly gripping and has rounded out Senator Nadeer as a character which was very much needed. With Lucy Bauer and Eli Morrow both gone Senator Nadeer has been the most consistent villain we’ve had all season and now, finally, I am starting to understand just how she works. This week showed precisely just how driven Senator Nadeer is and how much she believes in her cause against any sort of alien threat. Her massive prejudice against Inhumans, though nothing new to this show, was all the more personal when she confronted her brother. Once I realised she was setting up her own kin for execution it shed a light on a far darker side to Nadeer than I had ever seen. This was further hit home by Vijay successfully saving his own life by appealing to his sister to trust him; the fact that even after all this Nadeer killed her brother with her own hand solidified her zealousness and made her far more compelling. She grieved killing her brother which just further emphasised how strong her hate for Inhumans is.
I was so glad there was a moment allowed between Simmons and Daisy this week where we saw how grateful Simmons was to have her friend back; there’s not much room for personal relationships in the show at the moment, so it was sweet for this to be acknowledged. This week we also got to see Simmons head out into the field and get into a scrape! The ensuing struggle was appropriately tame as Simmons has not been formally trained in combat yet but her smashing a glass jug over her opponent’s head still got a cheer from me.
I must admit seeing Aida getting decapitated by Mack’s shotgun-axe caused me to shout aloud; I completely sympathised with Aida in her final moments and immediately lamented her loss. This made the following scene and reveal all the better; Aida is not gone and there are at least two models (and probably more) in the mix. The Radcliffe twist was very effective; I had spent so much time watching the May-droid this week that I was never suspicious of Radcliffe despite previously being unable to shake the look on his face the first time he opened the Darkhold weeks ago. It also doesn’t feel out of character at all for Dr. Radcliffe, in fact this reveal feels far more appropriate than the slightly house-trained doctor we have been seeing in recent weeks. I don’t believe he’s “evil”, just that his loyalty is always going to be to science and to the advancement of the human condition.
All in all, this week was a remarkable return and I’m so glad to see that four seasons in and this show is going stronger than ever. Honourable mentions go to the Daisy and Mace scene; this was performed excellently and it was great to see how Mace would handle the rebellious nature of Daisy. “You don’t get to be modest and have a framed glamour shot on your desk”. It was also nice to see Elena utilised without her powers and to get some nice scene work with Mack. I particularly enjoyed, “I always worried that robots would try and kill me one day.” “Really? We grew up different . . . “. The post-credits scene then left us with Vijay’s apparent dead body hitting the bottom of the ocean before becoming encased in rock once more. This, coupled with numerous mentions of a ‘superior’ who appears to be running the Watchdogs paves the way for the rest of the season. Although, if this ‘superior’ is someone we know or someone entirely new is yet to be confirmed. I am inclined to lean towards the latter but only the coming weeks will tell.
Danny Hale
Originally published January 12, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
